Ten years ago, after a lengthy period of being tested on bridges throughout the country, fiber-reinforced polymer composites—touted for their lightness, longevity and resistance to corrosion compared with traditional materials—seemed poised to enter the U.S. mainstream bridge-building market.

In Maine, contractors are “blowing up” bridges: They are inflating hollow carbon-fiber tubes on-site, bending them into arches and infusing them with resin. Filled with concrete, the bridges are ready to be decked, backfilled and paved. Acting as bridge arches for short spans, carbon tubes are inflated and filled with concrete by workers in Maine. Related Links: Dozens of Test Projects Later, Advocates Still Have Durable Dreams Material for Milk Containers Now Supports Railroad Traffic Brit E. Svoboda, chief executive of Advanced Infrastructure Technologies Inc., which owns the rights to the system, is hiking around the U.S. to promote its

Like any railroad crossing, the two short bridges completed this month at Fort Eustis, Va. will be expected to support 130 tons. Unlike typical crossings, however, they are made almost entirely of materials that once were used to contain milk and detergent. Contractors say plastic materials allowed for lighter equipment. Related Links: Dozens of Test Projects Later, Advocates Still Have Durable Dreams Bridge-in-a-Backpack Tech ‘Blows Up’ Next-Gen Bridges Working with Rutgers University, Axion International Holdings Inc., New Providence, N.J., developed proprietary polymer formulas that combine plastics to make an end product tougher than its ingredients. Sales partner Innovative Green Solutions

Delays in developing large power projects in Florida are bad news for contractors in a state already hurt by sharp construction downturns, says the Greater Florida Chapter of Associated General Contractors president. Photo: Florida Power and Light power plans FP&L says Riviera gas plant will proceed on schedule, but nuclear units face delays. Florida’s biggest utilities, Juno Beach-based Florida Power & Light (FP&L) and Progress Energy Florida, “stopped work on everything but the essentials” after the state Public Service Commission (PSC) in January rejected most of the big rate increases the utilities had sought, said Richard Marshall, who also is

The Shaw Group, Baton Rouge, La., was awarded a $197-million contract from New Orleans-based Entergy Corp. to provide engineering, procurement and construction services to add 178 MW of power to two nuclear units at Entergy’s Grand Gulf Nuclear plant in Port Gibson, Miss. The upgrade would boost the capacity of the plant by 13%, making it the largest single-unit nuclear powerplant in the country. Engineering and procurement has begun, and plant modifications will occur in the spring of 2012.

A proposal to build “sand booms” to help keep the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico from fouling Louisiana wetlands may help jump-start long-dreamed-of schemes to re-nourish Louisiana’s barrier islands. Photo courtesy of Baggerwereld.com Van Oord’s 9-year-old hopper dredge Rotterdam has a 21,500 cubic meter capacity and can dredge in waters as deep as 60 m, and up to 120 m, with extensions. Van Oord has 100 vessels worldwide and claims its fleet is three times the size of the entire U.S. dredging fleet. Related Links: Oil-Spill Battlefront Spreads From Gulf to Washington, D.C. Setting Oil Spill Liability Limit:

While natural disasters may be inevitable, disastrous consequences are not, if policy-makers, designers and builders plan successfully. This theme was explored on May 12 at a one-day workshop in Washington, D.C., convened by the National Building Museum, which is laying the groundwork for a major exhibition in fall 2011 to examine how communities can improve planning to resist the consequences of natural disasters. Event planners looked for guidance from the museum’s Industry Council for the Built Environment, comprising about 60 owners and association representatives. BLUMENAUR “Disasters don’t have to be unmitigated disasters,” said U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenaur (D- Ore.), vice

Is $10 billion too much legal exposure for oil spills? While Obama administration officials work to encourage Congress to bolster the resources available for the oil disaster response and recovery efforts, one proposal that included a measure to raise the liability cap for oil companies, as the President also favors, has already taken a beating on the Senate floor. But Jeff Liebman, acting deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget says the administration should still find opportunities and a bill that can be used to attach its proposals to. Related Links: Oil-Spill Battlefront Spreads From Gulf to Washington,

The rig owner is claiming progress on capping a deepsea well gushing oil into the Gulf of Mexico, but, as Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) said on May 17, “We are nowhere close to the finish line. This disaster will not be over for Louisiana until our water and our shores are completely clean and our wildlife, our communities and our coastal industries are 100% restored.” + Image Illustration: Deepwater Horizon Recovery Team BP says it is managing to capture about 20% of the oil leaking from the Deepwater Horizon well by inserting a new drill tube into the fallen

An ambitious project to bore a tunnel through the Continental Divide in the Andes of northern Peru has stalled after a powerful rock-burst severely damaged the tunnel-boring machine drilling the underground passage. Los Olmos tunnel workers dig out TBM damaged by shifting rock in April. Related Links: Odebrecht Pushes forward With Next Phase of Peruvian Irrigation Project On April 29, a large rock-burst struck the $14-million, 5-meter-dia, unshielded Robbins gripper TBM, damaging a cylinder connecting one of the grippers to the machine. Two workers suffered minor injuries when the operating cabin was partially crushed around them. Officials with Odebrecht Perú